The present invention relates to a printing management system, a printing apparatus and a print information output apparatus used therein, and a printing method used therefor. More specifically, the invention relates to a printing management system provided with plural printing apparatus and a client terminal connected to the plural printing apparatus via a communication line, a printing apparatus and a print information output apparatus used therein, and a printing method used therefor.
Among related printing management systems of the above type is a system that performs confidential printing in which a password is set for a print job to prevent printed matter from being seen by other persons in the case where printers are shared on a network such as a LAN (refer to JP-A-2002-163094, for example). In this system, a password that has been set for a print job is transmitted to a portable terminal of a user and the telephone number of this portable terminal is set for the print job and transmitted to a printer. Then, the user moves to the printer and the telephone number and the password are transmitted from the portable terminal of the user. The printer collates these pieces of information with information (telephone number and password) that is set for the print job and performs printing.
However, in the above system, a print job is held by a printer during a period from the transmission of the print job to the printer to the time point when a user reaches the printer, which is not preferable in terms of secrecy. Further, there may occur a case that it is found after the transmission of a print job to a printer that the use of another printer is favorable (for example, a case that trouble (e.g., toner running out) has occurred in the printer or a case that many standby print jobs exist). However, the above system requires re-transmission of the print job.